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Friday April 15, 05
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09:10 AM - The Pin-up Pull Down
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With a face as weathered and leathered as the tattered jacket he was sporting, Billy Idol posed for the cameras. It was a ghastly sight to be sure, but also extremely sobering at the very same time.
We are living in an age full of rock and roll comebacks - which is, in reality, nothing more than paleo popstars living out their mid-life crises on massive public scales - and quite frankly, it's nothing short of an in-your-face reality check. It is, to be sure, a constant reminder of one's own mortality, as well as a sure sign that popular society has nothing left to offer, other than moth-eaten memories of the "me" generation for our listening pleasure.
Of course, there is new and fresh music to be heard, alot of which takes from music that some of us grew up with and still hold dear, but seriously, do these hoary fossils from yesteryear have to show us all how badly father time has kicked their faces in? Do they have to whore themselves out and ruin their legacies in the process, and do they really have to depress us all so very much with their insisting that they're still as hip as ever to a groove dominated by those with far more youth and style than the likes of them in this day and age?
Morrissey is no exception, and in hindsight I don't really like Quarry all that much. See for me, it already sounds dated one very short year on, whereas albums like Strangeways or The Queen Is Dead still sound as timeless as ever. So what's the deal? Why did he release such idle drivel? He doesn't need the money, and he most certainly didn't release it soley for artistic reasons because if he was indeed an artist first and foremost, he'd of released new music far before he had his record deal. It wouldn't have been that hard to do. He's a business man, that's all. Such a sad realization to come to, I know, but it's true. Artistically, stylistically and physically Morrissey is losing it, and has been losing it for quite some time now. We just don't see it in him the way we may see it in others because we're either in denial, or, more commonly, we've been following him so closely over the last few years that we just simply can't see what he's become.
Just think about it this way, no-one simply rolls out of bed and finds that they've grey hair or a glabrous scalp. No, such things happen to a person over time, slowly and discreetly, so it comes as no surprise when it occurs. But, on the other hand, if someone who hasn't seen the person at hand in a few decades or so were to suddenly see them at the Pensioner's Disco, they may be slightly taken aback at the sight of good ol' Rusty J. Wobbly and would no doubt begin to take inventory of their own miserable existence.
Just ask a coma survivor who has just come back from a ten year trip what he thinks of his funky-ass long hair and nails, the Quarry cover picture, and the footage of his now thirty-something ex-girlfriend cougaring it up at a modern day Duran Duran concert what he thinks of it all, and no doubt coma-boy will tell you just how upset he is with you for not having pulled the plug on him when you had the chance!
Seriously though, let's put it all into perspective. Imagine a person who hadn't seen or heard anything about or by Morrissey since the late eighties. Envision that person seeing Morrissey's Irish Blood, English Heart video last year. They'd probably freak out over the passing of time in general, much the same way I did seeing Mr. Idol's mug plastered in the entertainment section of one of my city's dailies! The only reason alot of us don't realize that Morrissey is just as bad as the return of New Order, Duran Duran or even Billy Idol is because we've been clocking his every move, much the same way we see ourselves in the mirror everyday, and this is why we don't notice time taking it's toll in the same drastic ways we can see it do so with others.
So this begs in the question: how would I personally come across to someone who hasn't seen my ugly mug since highschool? Seriously, how would I appear in the eyes of someone from yesteryear, and how would they appear to me? Scary to think about, really.
I heard a muzak version of "Friday I'm in Love" in the grocery store last week, and I heard Blur in the same store a few weeks prior. Our "new rock" is becoming classic rock, or, more accurately, soft rock. Horrifying, considering that I can still clearly remember being pushed around in a shopping cart as a child listening to Crystal Gayle's "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" (which I thought was "Doughnuts Make My Brown Eyes Blue" when I was young... but that's neither here nor there) pump out of that very same system. Anyway, what I was trying to say is that it doesn't seem all that long ago at all, but I suppose it was. Oh, how time does indeed age and destroy as it ever so nonchalantly ticks on and on. Blink, and a new generation is spawned. Unnerving. So what's next, Alien Sex Fiend on elevators? Oh dear God, how I really do hope so!
Oh, but I still do like Morrissey though, just not the same way I used to. No, he's not what he used to be, but then again, neither are we.
The Organ kicks,
Sullen
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I have to say, I don't listen to Quarry much at all. compared to the passion with which I allowed the other albums to engulf me, Quarry has been treated as a very good album, but it just seems so... "light" ...and not in the dreamy smooth Vauxhall way.
At least this, and I hesitate to say it, comeback (because he's never really been away for me) of Morrissey's is successful. But this means that Quarry has been reaching people who have never heard of Morrissey before and I feel compelled to defend, what some may see as a slight obsession with Morrissey, because if Quarry is the only album they have heard, the fact that I go to concerts alone, fly across the country to go to a concert alone, buy everything I can get my hands on that's Morrissey related (save that god awful teapot on ebay, was it?), etc. may all seem a bit much.
My Morrissey discovery was soon after Maladjusted, so I've had the last 8 years to play catch up and now Quarry comes out, and it's good, but for those of you who were waiting these 10 years... I dunno... I think we're all partial to anything Morrissey because we've loved him for so long, but if Quarry was the first album we'd heard, would we feel the same?Many of us would be hooked and look up his older stuff because something in us connects to him anyway, but I wonder if these brand new fans will do that and discover the whole of his work?
sorry this is so wordy..